A tremor in the Force

..... and I'm sure Harvey Weinstein is feeling it.

In 2003, New Zealander Peter Haynes made the movie Fanboys about a group of Star Wars fans on a journey to steal a copy of Episode I: The Phantom Menace before its release date so that their friend can view it before passing on due to cancer. The film itself is a tribute to Star Wars fans that manages to poke fun while never feeling less than heartfelt. Peter Haynes, true to form, has since made a name for himself with such films as Feel the Force: The Jedi Street Preachers of Auckland and Almost There and Back Again, using LOTR as the subject for the latter.

The movie was set to be remade by the Weinstein Company and released to American audiences. George Lucas viewed a rough cut of the film and gave it his stamp of approval. A version of the film was finally shown in public on July 14th 2007 (note: Bastille Day) at Star Wars Celebration Europe. It received several standing ovations and has been consistently lauded ever since.

Enter Harvey Weinstein (and cue The Imperial March). In order to make yet another intelligence-eroding Soma Holiday movie-by-numbers, he brings in Steven Brill to touch-up the movie. If the name is unfamiliar, most likely you've repressed it after his 2004 masterpiece Without a Paddle or after noticing how his writing went from passable to banal to Dullsville within the course of three Mighty Ducks movies.

As it turns out, this "touch-up" includes a) adding crude humor with their fervent belief that vulgarity = comedy = $$$ b) tearing the heart out of the movie by completely nixing the cancer sub-plot (if only cancer was actually that easy to get rid of?) c) turning the identifiable Star Wars fan protagonists into a bunch of bumbling jerks.

Harvey Weinstein has been given the moniker "Darth Weinstein" by fans - the more the story unfolds, the more true that is. The unaltered remake directed by Kyle Newman was a rarity in movie-making: a pure celebration of life and fandom. Imagine a movie made for fans, by fans, accepted by fans, then almost released on a much larger scale to reach other fans and (perhaps just as important) entertain and enlighten those less familiar. But at the last minute, the Dark Side Hollywood machine steps in to, as far as I can tell, continue a plot to dumb down our populace.

Luckily there is a resistance effort underway that is already large, determined, and uncompromising. http://committed.to/stopdarthweinstein is "a grassroots movement founded by a consortium of Star Wars fans who don't want to see FANBOYS, the first and only feature film about Star Wars fans, ruined by a greedy movie studio who has no respect for its target audience!" Simple enough.

One of their retaliations is this befitting synopsis of the issue. (Note: for those with sensitive ears, a bleeped version is also available)

I have vowed to boycott any Weinstein/Dimension films starting with this weekend's release Superhero Movie. I will spread the word here and to friends/coworkers. I've done my part, now it's your turn.